National Mobile Number Portability Rolls From Today (July 3)

Mobile operators Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, and others including state-run BSNL and MTNL have announced rolling out from tomorrow (i.e today) the full mobile number portability (MNP) that will allow customers to retain their numbers across the country.

Other private players such as Uninor, Sistema Shyam Teleservices and Videocon will also roll out the service to meet the July 3 deadline fixed by the government.

The national MNP service will facilitate customers to carry their existing mobile number from one telecom circle to another across the country and choose the operator of their choice without changing their numbers.

In a statement, Airtel said its customers can enjoy special offers like processing requests to port within Airtel’s network within 24 hours and free incoming on roaming until the portability request is processed. Vodafone said, “Customers looking for the convenience of retaining their existing number at the new location can avail the benefits of national MNP service.”

“Vodafone has benefited from the intra-circle MNP that was rolled out in 2011 and we look forward to a similar response this time,” Vodafone India Chief Commercial Officer Vivek Mathur said.

Idea Cellular said it has enabled its network to roll out the DoT mandated national MNP services for mobile users across the country.

“Idea has been the MNP leader with over 14 million net gain of customers so far, through intra circle MNP services. The company is now ready to enable national MNP by allowing its own users to retain their numbers even if they move out of a circle and also take on new customers who wish to switch to Idea network from their current service provider,” Idea said.

Reliance Communications said it is ready to roll out MNP nationally from July 3 onwards.

“Reliance Communications will also be offering attractive and aggressive plans for both its pre-paid and post-paid customers, as well as customers porting in from other networks, to ensure that this is a seamless and easy transition,” a company spokesperson said.

State-run BSNL and MTNL also confirmed the rollout.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which offers services under MTS brand name said it welcomes the government’s decision to roll out MNP on a PAN India basis from July 3. “The company is fully geared up to comply with the deadline. The move will enable MTS India to quickly and efficiently process all number portability requests,” a MTS spokesperson said.

A Uninor spokesperson said the company has upgraded its backend IT and network infrastructure to ensure a smooth implementation of MNP, which will facilitate customers to switch operators across circles without changing numbers.
“Our retail network and the customer care executives have been trained to aptly handle the queries of our valued customers with regard to the national MNP,” Uninor said. Videocon Telecom CEO and Director Arvind Bali said, “What we feel is inter circle no portability is more of a need based utility, unlike intra circle portability where the customer reasons could be dissatisfaction from quality of service and tariffs etc.”

Ending the speculations on rolling out full-MNP, Rakesh Garg, Chairman, Telecom Commission and Secretary, Department of Telecommunications revealed that the nationwide mobile number portability will commence from 3 July 2015. Mr. Garg revealed this in an interview to a national newspaper The Hindu.

With pan-India MNP becoming a reality, the subscribers can maintain the same mobile phone numbers while shifting between circles and states. This will eradicate the need to take a new mobile number for the subscribers while they are relocating to another place.

Full MNP has been a topic of discussion for long among the subscribers and telecom operators. Initially, Government had asked telecom operators to roll out full MNP by March 31st. However, blaming TRAI’s delay in publishing the amended regulations and difficulties in removing the technical glitches, operators requested the Government to extend the date, which was announced on 3rd May 2015.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) further delayed it to July 2015 on the grounds that the changes recommended by Department of Telecommunications will take eight weeks to complete. On May 18, country moved a step closer to full MNP when operators implemented simplified dialing patterns without 0/+91.

The earlier deadline (May 3) to roll out full MNP was delayed by two months after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) sought extension from DoT as telecom operators needed to make some technical changes to their networks to implement the service.

In between, BSNL and MTNL once again tried to gain extension in rolling out full-MNP. However, BSNL, as a part of its revival plan, announced the removal of roaming charges.